Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/41

 26 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. was sufficiently comprehensive to dispense us from entering into further details in this place in regard to them.^ Fig. 250,^ which we engrave below, will enable the reader to form a correct idea as to the aspect and situation of this remarkable group far more efficiently than any word-painting of ours. The restoration, based on the data furnished by C. Belger, is due to Lubke, and requires some few words of comment. This will give us an opportunity of defining with greater nicety the probable sequence in the gradual development of the group in question, during which it probably assumed the aspect in which we show it here. The six graves, which contained the remains of fifteen bodies, are excavated at different levels on the side of the citadel hill facing west (Fig. 90, C, and Fig. 251). It is just possible that originally the several mounds, each surmounted by a stela, lay at some little distance from one another, but as their number increased, they got nearer and nearer, and ended in forming one continuous tumulus (Tujtt0o^), which had to be supported to the westward by a semi-circular wall, to prevent the earth from gliding down the slope, notably during the rainy season. On stated days, and as the year came round, propitiatory sacrifices were offered above these tombs. In consequence of these cere- monies, the tumulus rose in height, and with it the sustaining wall, the rebuilding of which, however, was not carried out with any regard to symmetry, nor were they mindful to keep the stelae in an erect position, for several, in a fragmentary state, have been found buried in the ruin and soil. Hence there came a day when the need was felt to invest a sanctuary which had been consecrated to the worship of distant and shadowy ancestors, with a form more appropriate to the holiness of the place. This was effected by means of a fence put around it. Was the sanctuary originally comprised within the citadel en- closure, or was it suffered to remain a long time without the rampart ? Did the latter occupy the site of the present sustain- 1 Sec ante, pp. 311-335. 2 Charles Belger, Die Mykenische Lokalsage, e^r. An interesting paper by Reisch, entitled, Schliemann's Ausgrabungen^ which appeared in the Zeitschrift fiir Oesterreichische Gymnasien, will repay perusal. It contains many a judicious and original observation ; but we think the author is mistaken in identifying the bee-hive tombs of the lower city with the sepulchres shown to Pausanias as the burial-places of the Atridae.